In known exterior mirrors, a fairing is permanently fastened to the housing by means of screws, and participates in the pivoting movements of the housing in the event of a collision. Only in the region of the projecting fitting is a small portion of the fairing arranged at a fixed location and molded from a yielding rubber so that it can be folded together in the forward direction as the mirror-housing folds away. The two pivot-axes of the known mirror-housing do not need to lie parallel to each other and side-by-side. The axes can be arranged at an angle to one another and to the direction of the force of gravity.
The capability of the exterior mirror to fold away is desirable for road safety in order to minimize injuries and damage in the event of collisions with people. Moreover, in the folded-away condition, the mirror should overhang as little as possible to keep the risk of injury as low as possible. On the other hand, an object is to produce a mirror-fairing which is aerodynamically efficient and which requires a certain minimum dimension in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle to guide the relative airflow around the mirror-housing in as loss-free a manner as possible.
In the periodical "Automobil-Revue", dated Feb. 12, 1981, sketches are shown on page 5 of vehicle design-studies originating from various companies. These studies also show exterior-mirror fairings which, in side view, are wedge-shaped and are particularly aerodynamically efficient. However, mirrors of this type present problems concerning their capability to fold flat in the event of collisions. In a similar study, the fairing of the mirror-housing is clipped to the housing in a detachable manner so that in the event of a collision, it detaches itself from the mirror-housing and falls away. However, this is not permitted under certain safety regulations because self-detaching vehicle components risk injury.
Manufacturing the entire fairing from a yielding rubber is possible. However, such large fairing components cannot be manufactured with adequate stability when employing maximum rubber-hardness values which are permitted by law for mirror components. Thus, they would be unable to withstand relative airflow, even at moderately high vehicle speeds without deforming. Apart from this fact, rubber is a relatively expensive material which can pick up comparatively heavy dirt deposits and which tends to crack as it ages.